Hey! Thanks for checking in with our blog today, Monday June 26. This is Madison and Kelsey here, telling you all about it!

Our day started out with a group heading out for an early morning run. Shout out to Konnie Dahmen for helping to start that trend last year! Quint followed in your example and took the lead of the front group this morning.

After devotional and breakfast (Emily Davis is keeping Christopher’s 2016 AK Go team pre-breakfast cheers going strong) we kicked off our first day of day camp. We all loved having the kids who came to day camp today! Day camp started out with a crazy fast paced ice breaker led by Paxton where we were able to learn tons of random facts about the students at camp. We had three skills clubs during camp today: making bracelets, decorating cupcakes, and doing archery! Sadly, we don’t have any pictures to show you today of the skills club, but we will definitely have some another time. We also played an outdoor kick ball game, which was really awesome! Overall, everything today just felt like such a great way to learn more about the other students at camp! Day camp wrapped up by gathering around the campfire where we worshiped God by singing out hearts outs (even if we were a little off key, we all had an amazing time).

Here are a few other random tidbits from our day:

• Emily and Ellie were some awesome photographers today. Anthony showed them how to use his super fancy shmancy camera and they had a blast practicing throughout the day.
• A stepped out of her comfort zone about 50 times in one day, rocked it all and is having a blast!
• Chloe and Makae sang their hearts out for all of camp to hear – it was silly awesomeness
• Jack ate a lemon like it was an orange. We saw him do this last year too, but this time he pulled Hagen into his shenanigans 🙂
• The views were still amazing today and we saw so many ways God was communicating to us with His beauty. We all hope you are also growing your faith in God while we are gone and have a wonderful day 🙂

Shout outs:

• Shout out to Emily and Ella – Madison loved the card and crown (see picture), and Kelsey was glad to be reminded of the most important Alaska rules (I’d actually forgotten to pass along those rules… silly me)
• Shout out to Brady just because I can (from Kelsey if that wasn’t obvious)
• Shout out to Craig – thanks for following the blog this week!
• Shout out to all those that comment on the blog – we love the encouragement and it’s a highlight of our campfire every night to know you’re following along!

Happiness And Love,
Everyone from Sutton, Alaska

Alaska is very different from home in my mind. The sun is basically always shining, there is a bird that is always chirping and a new adventure coming your way. Today was filled with obstacles filled with exhaustion, adventure and new opportunities to be a leader. Today was also filled with new ways of looking at things like the glacier we climbed, a new church and waking up to a view of mountains and my, I will say I could never get tired of the views.

Makae

Hiking an Alaskan glacier! Fun fact- this glacier moves an average of 1 foot a day!!

10:42pm…. Bright blue skies and puffy white clouds?!?! Our body clocks have got to be so confused!!

Making porcupine quill beads with the locals.

Good morning Alaska!

Kristin and Anthony reporting the good news that Alaska GO team has landed and has safely arrived to camp! All travels were smooth today and the flight was comfortable.

No luggage lost, no broken bones, and the students experienced a beautiful first view of the mountainside. Spirits are high and God is good.

We arrived at camp around 9:30pm (Alaska time). The sun is shining and the students have not yet realized how tired they are. We adults, however, are fully aware of the three hour time shift and are ready for bed. The students however…………

Goodnight!!!

Hey, I’m Padraig. I’m going to be a freshman at the Middleton high school. This is my first time to Alaska.

I have been involved in many Blackhawk mission trips before. I’ve gone to the homegroups and loved them.

I have one sister, a dad, a mom, and a dog. I’m going to Alaska because I want to serve the community and teen people about God,  and for me to get closer to Him. When I was seven I fell out a two story window, cracked my head open, and almost died. But I believed God saved me for a reason.

I’d like to thank everyone for helping us reach our goal for the trip.

Hi friends (and soon to be friends),

Chances are some of you reading this have entrusted your loved on with me. That’s AWESOME!!! Thank you!! My name is Kristin. and I love Jesus, coffee, and pork rinds. (Seriously, I just tried them and they are CrAzY good.) I love to laugh and am so excited that I get the amazing opportunity to be a leader on this trip. At first,  I wasn’t sure if I should apply to be a leader and come on this trip, but once I heard the passion and the vision that the  family had running camp,

I was SOLD! I am so excited to see what this journey has to offer!

Beyond being surrounded by this wonderful team, and seeing God work in their hearts and lives already, I am super stoked because my son Hagen, is also on this team! It will be our first mission trip, and our first time to Alaska! I love spending time with him in all of his activities, but watching him develop his own relationship with Christ and walk this path on his own is by far my favorite.

Thanks so much for all of your support!
Please enjoy the blog, our sharing stories, and pray for us on this adventure.

Kristin

Ps – I promise that your loved one will laugh at least once when we are together if I have anything to say about it! I also promise that they will all be encouraged and prayed for (some more than others if the need arises) on this trip. 😉

Hi, my name is Landon.

I was born in Utah and lived there since I was 12. We moved out to Wisconsin and I love it. The people are so nice. Right now I am currently 13, almost 14. I love to ski, wakeboard and play baseball. I have 3 older siblings (I’m the youngest by 11 years.) I decided to go on this trip because it sounded fun and I can’t wait to help people and build relationships through and with the Alaskan children.

Landon